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We will be filing our taxes jointly this year. My hubs is a little worried we will get less when we combine since I make much more than he does but I am excited to see what it will bring us. It'll be good money for the baby and add to our house fund.
I have heard of the tax credit but I too am not aware of all the details. Maybe someone will enlighten us.
I just did my preliminary taxes yesterday... Definitely hitting marriage penalty land. We're going to talk to a tax preparer to see if we missed anything. Usually I don't mind doing taxes, but ours are so complicated now that it wasn't that fun!
I have started mine but we are missing a lot of stuff still. The Making Work Pay Credit was actually given as a reduction in payroll taxes during the year so you have already gotten some of that money. It is for $400 a person, so $800 for a married couple.
@Roddy: If you make different amounts, you are actually more likely to get more of a refund than you would filing single. I only worked half the year and we are getting a big refund because of that but if we were both working and had similar incomes, then you are more likely to get hit by the marriage penalty.
BTW, I am a tax accountant so if anyone has questions, feel free to ask me!
We have a CPA that does our taxes for us. It's so easy; we scan all our paperwork into his sytem before our meeting, and then when we show up he double-checks everything and gives us our refund amount. Plus we get a candy bar at the end! I KNOW this is a big year because not only did we get married, but I also got a permanent job, my husband started grad school, and we bought a new house. I'm hoping all of those things combined will bring us in a nice refund!
@MissAsB -THANKS!!
I will be PMing you shortly to ask you a quick question.
haha i feel so stupid right now, if you do your taxes online, make sure you double check everything. i put in 1 wrong number in one of our ss numbers......it got rejected, and its funny that it was due to 1 number, i feel like such a retard.
Yeah, unfortunately, the SSN is a HUGE thing. If it is wrong, you return is rejected immediately.
I did our taxes already, and we got a huge refund filing jointly (he's a student). I'm actually kinda peeved because I like to break even and instead save money in a savings account all year. Otherwise I consider it an interest free loan to the goverment that I get at the end of the year. Grr!
We're working on ours. We're filing jointly for the first time, which is kinda awesome! I barely worked last year (in school and doing unpaid internships), so we ended up getting a pretty substantial refund.
One thing to keep in mind, for some of the education credits (Lifetime Learning is the one you get to take every year that you pay tuition), you have to file jointly if you're married to get the credit.
I'm fairly certain Making Work Pay is available to anyone who has/had a job in 2009 (but there might be an income cap--not sure on that).
There's also a new tax credit for students; I think it's called American Opportunity. It can work out to more than Lifetime Learning, but it's only available for people in their first four years of school.
As for the marriage "penalty" this usually is only the case when your incomes are similar--it might put you into a higher tax bracket. But for couples with disparate incomes, it can actually be a tax BREAK, b/c it can drop the higher paid person down into a lower bracket.
UG! We just did our taxes! NO BUENO!
We made about 100.00 dollars less on our return then last year when we were single. I made 4x what I did in 2008 and thats fine when im single! I was almost getting a 2700 Tax return! BUT THEN we added in my husbands taxes too and it caused that to be chopped down to 1400! UHHHG! I think we jumped up tax brackets hence less money. I joked and said GRRR IF ONLY I WAS SINGLE ID BE ROLLING IN DOUGH! haha
well luckily i efiled, and they let me resubmit it for free, it took like 5 seconds to fix, but dealing with 4 SSN's makes me lose my brain sometimes. i put in a 2 instead of a 3, i blame it on the numbers being right next to each other, haha.
We go to the accountant tonight. He said he would do it both ways, joint or seperate to see what would be best for us. Husband has always used this accountant, myself I always did them on my own, but not only did we get married, but we bought our first house, I went back to school and hubs got a new job last year so between the first time home buyers credit and all that, the paperwork is too confusing for me. Hoping we get a good one!
Yeah, I'm going to do it both ways and see which one is better for us.
Oh, @ mouse, you mentioned education credits. I looked up the Lifetime learning credit but couldn't figure out if I can use it if I'm a master's student. Or is it something that works if you are a undergrad student.
Kinda sucks for us right now, since we don't own a house or have kids.
Oh jeez. I think we're going to get hit with the penalty. We only have a 10,000 income difference this year.
I filed our taxes last night, while I was sick in bed. Somehow, I managed to muster up the energy to pay a visit to TurboTax. I LOVE TurboTax, but is it just me or are they really tricky? If you aren't careful in avoiding all extra "help links", they'll nail you for their $14.95 package! Thankfully, we're able to eFile with a simple 1040 so we can get away using their free program.
We file jointly because it enables us to receive the largest possible refund. We're receiving about $400 less this year than last but we're still very happy with what we're getting. It'll pay for the new king sized bed we just bought (and so desperately needed), and we're splurging on a new TV and entertainment center for DH because he's worked hard this year and really deserves a little treat. Then, the rest is going into savings.
The Make Work Pay credit almost tricked me at the end, too...I checked off "yes" thinking it was asking if I was already receiving the credit in my paychecks but in reality, it was asking if I've been a veteran, or something along those lines. That mistake almost cost us a few hundred bucks.
For property owners, be on the lookout for the Property Tax Credit. I had to do some Googling and phone my tax-wise mom to make sure we are rightfully able to claim it, and alas, we are!
I recommend that everyone check and double check their numbers and selections - tax programs can get a bit tricky even when they are seemingly simple. I caught myself making two errors that could have cost us some money if I hadn't gone back to re-read the question being asked.
MissAB: I was only legally married for 4 days in 2009 - should we just file separately? He hasn't worked since June, actually, but I was employed all year.
@yrret107: Any student can take Lifetime Learning. I've taken it every year I was enrolled in law school!
@coconutmellie: Technically it goes by your status on December 31 of the last day of the year. So you should file as married if you were married on Dec. 31, 2009.
And @ coconutmellie: the fact that he's been unemployed could end up helping you on your refund--his lack of income could knock you down into a lower bracket.
Mouse,
Does this cause folks who were married late in the year to take a big hit tax wise, if they hadn't adjusted their W-4's earlier in the year to account for being married at the end of the year?
@stlqinkqo: No, unless you're common law married. Each state has different rules on common law marriage, so you should check your state's to see if it might apply to you.
@kayakgirl73: I'm not sure--it might! I'm not a tax expert by any means! The only reason I know this is b/c my mom's a CPA, and she said we had to file as married (separately or jointly) even though we were only married for a fraction of the year.
Rats! Just looked it up and MO does not have common law marrage! oh well, I guess its filing seperately until this time next year!
@kayakgirl: Actually, we ended up getting a big refund because we didn't adjust our withholding until halfway through the year. You are considered married for the whole year so you will pay the married tax rates instead of single ones.
Boo! FH and I will never file jointly because he's on PAYE (Pay As You Earn) at his workplace so he doesn't actually have to file. However because I'm self employed I have to do self assessment. The slogan over here is "Tax doesn't have to be taxing" but I have to say I think that they're wrong!
I just finished our federal up yesterday and luckily we were able to use the free Turbo tax because of the fact that hubby was on workman's comp for 7 months, but we are getting a good amount back, but now I'm getting stressed trying to file our state taxes. Would be simple because I can efile for our Kansas, but hubby made a little over $2000 in the state of Missouri, so I think we have to file one for there too and doing that is confusing me??? Turbo tax figured what we are getting back for KS and what we owe to MO, but I don't want to pay almost $30 for each state to file with them!! Anyone know how to file a MO-NRI??? For some reason I'm not comprehending any of it and I have to do that one before I finish our KS one!! GRRRRRR!!
@stormy: If he lived in Missouri, he will need to file as a part year resident in Missouri. If he just worked in Missouri but lived in Kansas, he will probably have to file a nonresident in Missouri and a resident in Kansas. I'm suprised TurboTax showed you the calculations for the state, mine doesn't unless you pay for the state return.
Thanks everyone! We eloped, so we had no idea we were gonna get married so soon, so... this W-4 adjustment business might be frightening - I'm not sure what to do to do this right/maximize the return we so desperately need right now.
I sympathize with you kayakgirl, because my DH just moved to the state where I've been living (and where I'm technically not a resident), and so the state taxes will be a nightmare.
I just finished Turbo Tax and printed it out yesterday! Bought a house, hubby's a pastor and we had lots of itemized deductions but I'm 99% sure I did everything right. Now, I gotta mail it in. If you bought a house, you have to file by mail with settlement papers. :) Thrilled, but then we got in a tiiff about what to do with some of the money from the returns. He wants to loan it to his brother to continue law school but we have a student loan to pay off still and more to plan for. :( Fighting over money sucks!
Just finished our taxes as well. We're very happy to have a refund with both of us claiming 0 deductions... as in the past we've always had to claim 0 and pay extra each paycheck. This is the first year our refund is actually a real refund -- thank you full year of house payment/tax deductions!
MissAsB he actually only worked in MO for a month before hurting himself and he is a Kansas resident. I went on the MO state tax page and found the non resident form, but it is confusing and doesn't give very good directions. Yeah, I was suprised that turbo tax calculated our state too, because I told them I wasn't paying to send the state ones in, but I was able able to see amounts that we either get back or owe from them. So I know what we are getting back from KS and what we owe from MO, I just can't figure out how to get that amount from the MO-NRI form.. what makes me even more mad is that they only took out $32 in taxes from MO but it says that we owe $36. THANK YOU SO MUCH for your help though MissAsB, it is much appreciative and so kind!!!
@stormy: I would be careful about the amounts that it showed you. Since you didn't see the calculations, they might not be completely correct.
My husband and I used to get a nice refund back when we were single since we both owned a house but now that we filed married our refund is very, very small. Makes me wish we had put off getting married in January as compared to December.
I'm a tax accountant too and my hubby was between jobs this year and I had never adjusted my withholding for being married so we had a pretty big refund - especially with the $800 Making Work Pay Credit. There is an income cap of $150,000 for married couples filing jointly. I know that a lot of my friends' refunds are down this year than they normally are - and a lot of that is due to the IRS changing the withholding rates, so throughout the year (unless you changed it) your percentage of federal tax that was withheld from every check should have been less.
My husband keeps awful records (ie: he doesn't keep them) so it was a frustrating process for me this year to do our taxes!
Um yeah I have to do this. It's on my February to-do list. It's pretty complicated, having gotten married, the husband moving from GA to MO, his being in the military then jobless, and just weird stuff like that, where you go "Uhhhhh" cuz you're not sure what to click. He was technically employed for all of 2009, although on leave for it all. It's just weird cuz we lived in different states for so long. LIkely we'll file separate.
@ejs: You probably don't need to file as married filing seperately (and it might make you owe a lot more in taxes). You might just have to file as a part year/nonresident in GA.
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Anyone starting to file their 2009 tax returns? I just went through TurboTax last night - first time ever fiing a 1040 instead of a 1040EZ!! I am definitely happy with the refund it told us we're getting. :)
Also, has anyone heard of the Making Work Pay Tax Credit? I don't understand all the fine print, but I think it helped us get a larger refund!